The Old Guard 2 star talked Hollywood double standards just three days before Scarlett Johansson was declared Hollywood’s Highest Grossing Lead Actor of all time — largely thanks to her action movie roles.
Charlize Theron is sharing her feelings towards Hollywood’s double standard when it comes to action movies.
The Old Guard 2 star opened up in an interview with The New York Times, alongside co-star Uma Thurman, about how studios usually give female actors one shot to have an action movie hit. But male actors have a better chance of sequential projects — even if one doesn’t hit in the box office.
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“Action films with female leads don’t get greenlit as much as the ones with male leads,” Theron revealed.
“I think the thing that always frustrates me is the fact that guys will get a free ride,” she continued. “When women do this and the movie maybe doesn’t hit fully, they don’t necessarily get a chance again.”
Shifting to talking about her latest action franchise with Old Guard, Theron added, “With this, we were very aware that eyes were on us. It’s not a risk that studios want to take, but they’ll take it many times on the same guy who might have a string of action movies that did not do so well.”
Thurman mentioned she hasn’t done any action films after the gory but legendary Kill Bill movies. She also wasn’t part of the original Old Guard, which released in 2020.
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“I don’t actually have that much experience doing action movies,” Thurman added, referring Quentin Tarantino’s modern classic. “I did one that turned into two, and then I didn’t really go back.”
Theron has a plethora of action movies under her belt with the newest one, The Old Guard 2, marking just her second action sequel, outside of the Fast & Furious franchise, after 20 years of starring in action films.
Putting an exclamation point on Theron’s argument by beating the conventional standard, Scarlett Johansson was just crowned Hollywood’s highest grossing lead actor, passing her MCU co-stars Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr., after the larger-than-expected blockbuster opening of her new film, Jurassic World: Rebirth.
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The film earned $147 million for its 5-day Fourth of July extended holiday launch, with an additional $318 million in its 6-day global launch, per TheWrap.
According to The Numbers, as analyzed by TheWrap, that blockbuster start gave Johansson a lifetime career box office gross of $14.8 billion in films where she’s in the lead or part of a lead ensemble. With Rebirth, Johansson takes over the lead Jurassic role from Chris Pratt.
With the latest Old Guard film, Theron and Thurman shared their appreciation for being able to share the spotlight in their new movie.
“I find Charlize to be very mysterious. I feel like she keeps a tight circle around her. But she’s revered and admired, and her work speaks for itself, so this was a special opportunity,” Thurman opened up.
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“Getting to work with a great actress is a precious thing, and projects are usually not designed to bring multiple heavyweight women together, as Charlize has done with this franchise.”
“I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, you and Uma should do a movie together. I want to see The Bride and Furiosa go at it,” Theron shared. “Aside from that, I’ve just always loved her as an actor.”
The Old Guard 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
